Chapter 110 Unique

Duan Qirui was still troubled by the money issue. "World War I" was over, and the Supervision Office for Participating in the War and the newly established "Participating Army" were correspondingly changed to the Supervision Office for Border Defense and the Border Defense Army.The Frontier Defense Army and the Northwest Frontier Defense Army are actually not the same concept. The Frontier Defense Army has actually broken through the category of "participating troops". In addition to the Northwest Frontier Defense Army, it also includes the Ninth Division of the Army and other troops directly related to the Duan family.The Northwest Frontier Defense Force was simply an extension of the "participating army" and was directly commanded by Xu Shuzheng. Its expenses also mainly depended on Xu Shuzheng's personal "begging" from Anhui Governor Ni Sichong, Shaanxi Governor Chen Shufan and others.

The Northwest Frontier Army is also known as the Northwest Army by custom.This is the earliest army named after the Northwest Army during the Republic of China. It governs three divisions and four brigades. The first and second mixed brigades are the two Fengjun brigades that belonged to the War Supervision Office when Xu Shuzheng was the deputy commander of the Fengjun. I dug it out by hand.The third and fourth mixed brigades were recruited according to Xu Shichang's order. The recruitment area of ​​these two brigades was designated as southern Anhui. Due to the full assistance of Ni Sichong during the recruitment period, they were fully recruited in a short time.

The Northwest Army is equipped with Japanese-style equipment. The rifles and machine guns are "38-style", and the mountain artillery is "Taisho Six-year-style". Other equipment such as transportation and communication are also from Japan.As far as the situation at that time was concerned, these equipment were in the top position in all armies across the country. In addition to first-class equipment, the Northwest Army also has first-class officer quality-most of the officers of the brigades are from regular military schools, and the number of officers who are simply from the army is relatively small.

After the old Beiyang faction fell apart, there were not many elite Beiyang troops who could fully obey Duan Qirui's dispatch. This made him and Xu Shuzheng suffer a lot and be constrained in their actions.The Northwest Army is similar to Yuan Shikai's model regiment. It is the first lineage armed force created and directly commanded by Duan and Xu since the confrontation between Zhi and Anhui. According to Duan Qirui's instructions, Xu Shuzheng used Luoyang as his base to carry out military training with his own characteristics for the Northwest Army. Zhengzhi Middle School (later renamed Chengda Middle School) is the predecessor of the Middle School Affiliated to Capital Normal University.This famous school with a century-old history and cultural accumulation was founded by Xu Shuzheng. The fund for the establishment of the school was the commission he received from the American arms dealer approved by Yuan Shikai that year.After the school was completed, Xu Shuzheng served as the first principal, and personally formulated the teaching plan and selected teachers. Lin Shu and other famous cultural figures were invited as teachers by him.During this period, Xu Shuzheng also had a plan to turn Zhengzhi Middle School into a university.Although there are many Beiyang soldiers who respect teachers and teachers, it is extremely rare for them to be as serious as him.

What is even more amazing is that Xu Shuzheng's school-running model is also different.Ordinary middle schools at that time generally did not have military drills, and ancient prose had been placed in a relatively secondary position in the curriculum.Xu Shuzheng advocated that "Chinese learning is for the body and Western learning is for application". Students in Zhengzhi Middle School must practice military exercises and read ancient Chinese prose, both of which are indispensable.He also often spoke to the students, calling on them to learn their skills so that they can conquer Japan in the future, and the national humiliation since the Sino-Japanese War.

The army was also infused with such personal ideals by Xu Shuzheng.He hopes that his subordinates can "fight thieves when they get on their horses, and become lubu when they get off their horses", and they can hold both guns and pens.For this reason, he stipulated that all officers of the Northwest Army must read ancient books such as "Sun Tzu's Art of War", "Guanzi", "Mencius", and "Warring States Policy", and must write an essay every two weeks or a month.The topic of the composition is drawn up by Xu Shuzheng, and there is no limit to the genre or the number of words. Both classical Chinese and vernacular can be used, and the length of the composition can be long or short.After writing it, Xu Shuzheng corrected it himself without any help.If the article is well written, you can also get paper, pen, ink cartridge and other rewards.

Unlike officers, soldiers generally have a low level of education, and most of the newly recruited are even illiterate.Xu Shuzheng paid close attention to the "literacy education" of the soldiers. After "literacy education", within a year, not a few soldiers could read vernacular newspapers and write family letters. The training of soldiers in the army in the early Republic of China all focused on the old-fashioned training on the playground, and slow walking was often regarded as very important.Xu Shuzheng didn't care much about these formal things. What he cared about was field exercises and live ammunition shooting. He was especially strict with the physical training of officers and soldiers, such as gymnastics with equipment, stabbing spears, chopping swords, running with weights, and overcoming obstacles with weights.

Xu Shuzheng also made some innovations in the army's official document format and military discipline.He found that the format of some official documents was very cumbersome. Sometimes the main text of the official document was only two or three sentences, but there was a lot of nonsense.Xu Shuzheng's general order was abolished, and the official documents became much simpler and clearer. Corporal punishment of soldiers was prevalent in various armies in the early Republic of China.At that time, the army also specially made a special army stick for beating soldiers, which was called "black red stick".Xu Shuzheng ordered the abolition of "black and red sticks", and strictly prohibited corporal punishment and beating and scolding soldiers.Soldiers who make mistakes need to be punished, and all of them are confined to confinement.

These reforms seem insignificant now, but in terms of the situation at the time, they were extremely sensational, especially the one that did not punish soldiers, which was difficult for the general army.